Olivia Blanchard

OLIVIA BLANCHARD, an innovation enthusiast from France, was born on the island of Martinique and has been based in Slovakia for over four years. She is the founder of Alizé Advisory, offering expertise in startup growth, business development, innovation ecosystems, and public speaking. Olivia is also a research assistant at the University of Economics in Bratislava and a second-year PhD student in International Business Management. In 2025, Olivia received the Fulbright Schuman Award for Doctoral Research for her research on innovation ecosystems and startup development in post-socialist countries. Thus, she has been invited as a visiting researcher to the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the 2025-2026 academic year. 

With extensive leadership experience, Olivia has served as Managing Director of Health Venture Lab, a nonprofit incubator of healthcare startups, and as a research fellow at GLOBSEC and the Institute for Central Europe, two Slovak think tanks. Dedicated to empowering the next generation of innovators through a holistic approach, she holds a master’s degree in International Strategies & Diplomacy from ISIT Paris. A polyglot and liaison interpreter, she spent nearly a decade on the boards of the Bringing Europeans Together Association France and BETA Europe. Olivia is also a passionate yogi and a seasoned cook.

Last edited September, 2025.